IThe Mose is almost finished, it already works in an emergency. But the money ran out. The crates are empty. The companies that work to complete the mobile dams against high water are in difficulty. In some cases, companies are in such a crisis that they see closure, arrangement, bankruptcy.
The Venezia Nuova Consortium – the sole concessionaire of the State placed under public commissioner after the scandal of seven years ago and managed for some months by the liquidator Massimo Miani – is in liquidation and no longer receives all the transfers it needs from the State. Consequently, the few proceeds that arrive are barely enough to pay the 250 employees and to make the retractable gates work in an emergency setting, but they are unable to pay the companies that work to complete the last part of the colossal work.
The backlog is reported to amount to 200 million, a figure confirmed by stakeholders.
A letter against the risk of closure
Some companies are already facing the arrangement, some are facing the threat of definitive closure. On Monday, nine minor companies belonging to the consortium wrote a letter with formal tones but with the contents of desperation to the prefect Vittorio Zappalorto, and for information to the liquidator Miani, the extraordinary commissioner of Mose Elisabetta Spitz and the administrator of public works Cinzia Zincone. But the compact group of small and medium-sized consortium companies is not in difficulty.
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What do companies in difficulty write to the prefect? They speak of the “recent signs of a dramatic progressive worsening of the financial criticalities that have emerged from the Consorzio Venezia Nuova concessionaire”, they recall the first commissioner of the Consortium which took place in 2015 to restore the project after the scandal of unfortunate expenses, they mention the appointment of the extraordinary commissioner Spitz ” for the completion of the electromechanical works “and of the liquidator to” complete the activities of competence relating to the Mose and the protection and safeguarding of the Venice Lagoon in execution of the agreements, as well as proceed with the delivery of the work in favor of the Authority for the Venice lagoon ».
But, they write in the letter, “the progressive worsening of the financial criticalities of the Consorzio Venezia Nuova is far from finding a solution” and this puts the sector of completion works at risk “without, however, that the same sector can be attributed the slightest responsibility” .
The signatories observe (Giorgio Mainoldi, Devis Rizzo of Kostructive, Massimo Paganelli of Clodia, Renzo Rossi of Rossi Renzo, Giovanni Salmistrari of GRV, Giacomo Calzolari of IntercantieriVittadello, Luigi Chiappini of Nuova Coedmar, Francesco Gregolin of Pmi and Paolo Merlo of CCC) that the consequences of this financial paralysis are “the total stalemate in which the work will focus starting from autumn 2020”, the “loss of employment”, the “remembrance of social safety nets”, a serious increase in social and economic tensions ” .
Steady construction sites and big questions
Here is Cimolai from Friuli: on an order of 29 million she received only 5.8 million in advance, and if she makes it enough (the company has been told) that there is no other money. If the balance does not arrive, 100 people will go to layoffs and the construction site will stop.
The project on which Cimolai works is related to the restoration of some works that in the previous management had been damaged or badly carried out.
In Monfalcone, the Cimolai is finishing the colossal portal 16 meters high and 54 wide, 8 meters often that a truck can pass over it, which will have to replace a sluice designed badly by the previous builders.
It is one of the enclosures of the floodgates of the Malamocco mouth, one of the four barriers that in case of high water will close the lagoon from the open sea. The main port entrance for the passage of ships and fishing boats is that of Malamocco. On the side of the mobile dam of the Mose, a refuge port has been built where, in the event of a furious storm on the open sea, ships and boats can find temporary shelter. Poorly designed, with profiles that do not allow maneuvering to larger ships, the shelter is equipped with a lock, a navigation lock, through which the two doors should pass ships even with the Mose in operation.
But a storm had torn and split one of the two immense doors of the lock, and then the other door was blocked and buried.
Cimolai must complete and install the colossal sliding door and make the emergency gate operational. But everything is still. And the fishing boats protest because they have no way out.